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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611174">Empress Social Link Rank 1</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuteCabaret/pseuds/CuteCabaret'>CuteCabaret</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, Abduction, Alcohol, Betrayal, Drugs, Gen, Supernatural - Freeform, a happy ending at least, a lot of f bombs but i still think it counts as T, some type of angst and hurt comfort i guess</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:27:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,132</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuteCabaret/pseuds/CuteCabaret</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Poppy makes up with Noir after a fight, learning many new things in the process. More info in the notes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Empress Social Link Rank 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Okay, so...what this is is basically a snippet from my ongoing RP plot that I like to affectionately call "Persona 6." It's basically a fan written next installment of the Persona series, with OCs as most of the characters (though a few canons do exist). I wanted a Persona where the protagonist was a woman and an adult, since I thought it'd be a cool spin. I'm not sure if I'll make this an official series on here like I did with whumptokinktober (and some of the characters here were involved in that too btw), and I don't know if I'll upload the entire fanwork here either since right now it's a scattering of discord threads I'd have to hunt down and organize and the character development and relationships between them stretch back even further, to now-deleted tumblr rp blogs that have no archive, so a lot of material is lost anyway. Also, it involves a lot of other people too - I'd definitely need to consult with them to see if they mind me uploading collab'd threads here and helping me organize. </p><p>So, for the most part, I'm gonna be uploading the social link snippets that involve my OC's "talking to themselves", as it were. Material that I write myself that doesn't have an RP partner attached because it's unfair to put the burden on my partners to provide ALL the npcs in this adventure. I'll have to see what they say and what the reception to this and other snippets is like before I consider posting more, I guess.</p><p>Information you need to know to understand this piece:<br/>Familiarity with the Persona series, at least Persona 3-5. There will be unmarked spoilers for multiple endings for at least 4 and 5.<br/>Poppy is the protagonist. She's always had a band of 6 magic cats that are more than they might seem. Noir is one of them and her and Noir previously had a fight, with their team, called the Weavers of Fate, in their cognitive world, The Web. (Like 4's TV world or 5's Mementos, basically.) To make a long story short, Noir and the other cats have been lying to her about the full extent of their identity and powers, and Noir's been acting out to keep Poppy safe in ways that kind of cross the line. The tipping point was harassing a teammate in an attempt to defend Poppy and going too far.<br/>The Yu and Ren and Morgana mentioned are indeed the canon characters from the Persona series.<br/>The Yu mentioned is an AU Yu where he got an accomplice end, destroyed his universe, and ended up in Poppy's. The Multiverse is a thing here. They live together and joint raise a child, Ai.<br/>Poppy works as a freelance prostitute and is an illegal immigrant.</p><p>I think that covers all the important context. If things are still unclear, comment, and I'll clarify. Feel free to suggest tags too, in case I forgot any.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western">It had been a week since the inciting incident that left Noir out in the cold and Poppy in various stages of every and any synonym for anger, hurt, betrayal – the whole nine yards. Oh sure, she saw Noir slinking around out of the corner of her eye – had to keep appearances for Ai, after all. Hopefully she didn’t notice anything, but Yu definitely did and for that Poppy just played the avoidance game. And truthfully, she was running out of steam for that – eventually Yu was gonna corner her and demand an answer. But, in an effort to make that not happen tonight, she slipped out, thankful that her work wear and her club wear were almost exactly the same. Shelling out money to get train tickets was a necessary evil when she couldn’t get one of those fancy point cards, but as she had no urgent appointment to get to, it didn’t matter whether she got to Kabuki-cho the minute the sun had set or well into midnight, as long as the clubs were still open.</p><p class="western">She hadn’t gone clubbing in years, certainly not at all since she set foot in Japan, because being seen in public, being a member of the community, was so dangerous when you were on the run….but right now, she thought, as the train doors closed behind her, she just needed access to alcohol and a pretty one night stand. Shinjuku ni-chome wasn’t worth trying to infiltrate, not as a foreigner, but hopefully with the right atmosphere and enough drinks, maybe she could find a really effeminate boy and just kind of pretend it was a strap on or something – or maybe she’d be lucky and find a genuine WLW in a mainstream pop club. She knew they weren’t all clustered in specific areas, statistically. Really she was preparing for the inevitability that a man would approach her, and trying to decide whether the alcohol would be a good trade off for not getting paid for it. As she got to the line to the club, who’s kanji name she couldn’t exactly read from this distance anyway, feeling the music vibrations through the sidewalk even, it occurred to her that she might as well actually be on the job, if she wanted the night to be a blur anyway, but, well...too late now.</p><p class="western">Calling this place mainstream might have been a little bit of a stretch – they didn’t card her, which was why she gravitated here in the first place, and she managed to slip in without even having to pay an entry fee by just giving the bouncer a practiced wink and blowing a kiss. Man, sometimes being a young, apparently attractive foreigner had its perks. Her first order of business was to snake across the dance floor, the low lights making the leather of her skirt glisten even if it was too tight to sway and float, and find a nice cozy spot in the corner of the bar. The perfect seat was open – not right by the edge but not dead center, not crammed against a wall so she had potential escape routes, a seat that gave her the option of deciding how involved she really wanted to be with people tonight. She still had to mull that one over, as the only thing she really cared about right now was this ice cold can of Asahi, sliding down her throat and replacing all those conflicting, uncomfortable feelings about what she’d said, what she’d done a week prior, with a delightful fuzzy buzz.</p><p class="western">Halfway into her can, she found herself wishing for shochu, but this place that had neon lights and a multicolored dance floor and was blaring the latest J-pop hits didn’t seem like the type, so she vowed to make her next drink a fruity, sugary monstrosity, all in the name of reaching that coveted blood alcohol percentage of 0.2. In the back of her head, her own voice was scolding her for being so reckless, but it’d be fine! Even without Noir – fuck, she didn’t even want to think her name still. Even without her, she still had five other cats at her beck and call. She’d just maybe drink a few drinks here and then stop at a vending machine or something to get that final beer can that would push her to her desired amount of drunkenness. Or she’d get lucky, find a man she could tolerate, trust enough to not leave her dead in a ditch somewhere, and test out the form of coping one of her teammates seemed to swear by. She already had little to no hope of finding a woman willing to let her bed them here, though she discreetly ogled the sheer sparkles clinging to their figures all the same.</p><p class="western">The music had gone through a few songs already, each somewhat blending into the other as her ability to discern the specifics of the Japanese language in the form of coming out of speakers at max volume slowly faded, and she was halfway through something pink and sweet with sugar on the rim, a crazy straw, and a little umbrella, when something, much more interesting than the bartender refilling her glass when she asked or women swirling around the dance floor, caught her eye. Her nostrils flared just a little – it was nice, actually, to have music too loud to think, so that all she could do was watch colors and shapes move and pour saccharine alcohol into her mouth. She wasn’t intending to dance here at all, since this scene was still too normal for her taste – it took everything she had to not want to change into something just as skimpy but a little more ragged, rough, and torn, but the need to blend in won that battle. Sighing, she turned to the stranger, ready to decline a dance and hoping instead she was being offered a free drink, when the familiar scent of chloroform filtered into her awareness, and even a beer and half a cocktail had her just a bit too sluggish in her attempt to dart out of her bar stool. Her eyes laser focused on the route to the women’s bathroom, half-heartedly struggling against the hands trying to press a cloth to her face. This place suddenly seemed seedier – the dance floor looked cracked now, the alcohol tasted foul in her mouth – oh. Fuck. She squirmed with renewed vigor, trying to take stock of herself and identify what she’d accidentally ingested and when, struggling to come to a conclusive answer as the world started to spin. She’d left her phone back home, too, because she had the cats…</p><p class="western">She had the cats. All the tension flew out of her, and she turned all her attention now to deciphering what the hell was in her drink, confident that the cats would be coming whenever they had an opening, right? Right? The world was closing in around her, and she couldn’t help but choke on the acid that was making her stomach churn, coming to a peak when she realized, by her own psychic toxicology labs, that this was GHB and where were they? Because now it was too late for her to do anything more than whimper softly as everything dimmed in a way that made her nauseous, unable to even rely on her powers to help her out of this mess and -</p><p class="western"><em>Noir. </em>That name popped into her head instinctively, along with the unwanted thought that if she were here, the place would be ablaze by now, surely -</p><p class="western">-</p><p class="western">The first thing she was aware of was the fact that she wasn’t tied up or gagged. <em>This is new.</em> Furthermore, she didn’t seem blindfolded either, and she was actually in a proper bed, unless her senses were lying to her and this wasn’t somehow the most comfortable mattress she’d ever had the pleasure of lying on. Her eyes slid open unintentionally and she slammed them shut without taking anything in, falling back on the reflex of “Never let them know you’re up yet”. Maybe she got nabbed by some fancy rich eccentric or something? But something else caught her attention as she tried to force her heart to stop racing: a presence. <em>Noir</em><em>.</em> So she did answer the call, huh? Well…</p><p class="western">Poppy wasn’t gonna be the one to talk first. She held out this long! Even though she opened her eyes and looked right at that familiar but different face and her mouth shook with the pile of words trying to force their way out, she kept her lips zipped tight. Instead, she marveled at how sitting up didn’t make the world spin like she assumed. No headache either. Huh, usually she didn’t burn through alcohol <em>that </em>fast, and certainly not one of the few drugs that actually worked on her on top of that. She narrowed her eyes.</p><p class="western">“What did you do?” The question burned on its way to Noir’s ears, and she squashed down the new torrent of emotion working its way onto her face. Noir was still in the wrong here, right? Right?</p><p class="western">Noir just hummed and moved from where she was at the edge of the bed to a chair, and Poppy took this chance to actually observe where she was. If Noir was here, also unbound, and not rushing her to escape or anything, this place had to be safe. Poppy sat up and stretched, torn between pressing Noir for an answer and taking in all this new visual stimuli. That she was on a bed was confirmed, western, double mattress, a real box spring. The sheets were plain but super soft – had to be magic. It also had to be magic that she couldn’t really place what they smelled like but that it reminded her of the entire sensation of comfort itself. It was jammed into a corner, next to a window, and beside that, a standard plain nightstand with a lamp, her phone – nicked from her spot at home? Rude. Her wallet was there too. Right in Poppy’s line of sight was what had to be a kitchen and right away it dawned on her that this was probably a studio apartment. Where, she didn’t know, because the décor was so western, if minimal, but the counter space she could see had a rice cooker on it as well. No tatami mats, but if she strained herself to look without having to actually get up, the stove had a fish grill built in? But also an oven? Bizarre. And outside the window was just the night sky, stars and moon and a cloud or two. What floor was this unit even on?</p><p class="western">It couldn’t be helped – she got out of bed, noting that her boots were off but nowhere near her, which suggested genkan, and, giving Noir a sharp glare, went about at least trying to find the bathroom, because that would be the true indicator. The walls, she noticed, plain white. Western. Oh, wait! She hurried over to the kitchen sink, staring down in trepidation. There weren’t any buttons she could see...how could she test this...she tore open the fridge and her jaw dropped. It was full, of way more things than Noir would ever need to feed herself – if Noir even ate! Poppy never saw it happen. And it was cuisine from all over the place – sushi, that looked freshly made, even though it couldn’t have been if it was in the fridge like this, sat next to a plate of baked ziti that was steaming somehow, even inside a cold box, and behind that was milk and behind that was orange juice and it seemed to stretch on forever, and when she thought of the possibility of eggs, a whole carton – 12, like in America – just materialized on the proper shelf. With American packaging, even. She shook her head and went back to looking for something to toss down the sink and settled on a parsnip. A little one, so that if she was wrong, she wouldn’t be breaking whoever’s magical apartment this was. All signs pointed to Noir being the creator of what had to be a liminal space but even though she still had fury that she could rekindle at a moment’s notice, the building didn’t deserve her abuse.</p><p class="western">She shoved the vegetable down the sink, making eye contact with Noir, who’d done nothing but let her meander around this whole time. Maybe she was waiting for a good chance to answer Poppy’s question? Well! As long as Poppy kept getting distracted, she never had to face those consequences! What a brilliant plan! The parsnip slid down with no problems, but Poppy didn’t hear the telltale noise of a garbage disposal, either. Swallowing, she bent down to open the cabinet under the sink, even though she realized once her hand was on the cabinet handle that she wasn’t even a plumber and wouldn’t have been able to fix this even if she wanted to. The door opened to the wall. Just...wall. She stuck her hand in and hit the wall. She pushed up, around the sink, trying to find pipes, but there was just nothing. An empty cabinet with no sink-parts. Maybe investigating the bathroom – if one even existed – wouldn’t prove anything. This place clearly didn’t run on actual logic.</p><p class="western">She went back to the bed, closing the fridge and trying to be as icy and regal as possible as she sat down all prim and proper, but it was probably hard to pull off that vibe with smeared makeup and a low cut leopard print top. Not exactly an intimidating outfit. “Well?” It was time to light her fury up again, but she couldn’t get it to spark, no matter how hard she tried, and that question came out more like a disappointed parent than a righteously angry scorned...she didn’t even know what they used to be. Friends? No, more than that. Not exactly lovers… some type of positive relationship tag! Except former. Oh, who the fuck was she kidding? “Wait – maybe I should -”</p><p class="western">“I saved you. At the club. You asked for me in a way I couldn’t refuse. Otherwise I would have sent another cat and continued abiding by your previous command.” Poppy waited for more of an explanation, because that sounded...Noir better not be…!</p><p class="western">“Don’t make me out to be some sort of kidnapper or something! I don’t make you do anything! You can leave any time you want!” Why she didn’t, actually, Poppy was uncertain of, because if they were flipped...if they were flipped, she wouldn’t have committed the crimes Noir did to begin with, probably. “You probably sh- I mean…” Maybe, just in case Noir was telling the truth...she had to be careful with words right now. “I was really mean to you.” She admitted, squirming a little, looking down at her pink fishnet-covered toes. “So I’d understand if that made you want to leave me forever.”</p><p class="western">Noir sat down next to her but Poppy barely noticed the bed shift. So she was weightless even like this, huh… “You were angry. People say cruel things when they’re angry. And I’ve heard worse.” Before Poppy could retaliate with more self-loathing – “You were right to be angry about everything I did. It was wrong of me to be lying and hiding such a major part of me from you for so long, and from now on, I’m going to be truthful about everything.”</p><p class="western">Poppy inched closer and sighed. “I missed you a lot…” Tears started to encroach on her vision. “I kind of wanted to make up right away but...but I couldn’t just cave like that.” Holding out for a week now seemed so stupid and silly. “I guess I was afraid you’d leave anyway – you know you can, right? I don’t wanna keep you, like, mystically bound to me or something…” She suppressed a squeal at how nice it felt to have Noir’s hand on her shoulder.</p><p class="western">“I’m afraid it doesn’t actually work like that. Rest assured I’m here because I want to. I made the choice to be with you of my own free will years ago and I don’t want to leave, especially not over something so easily resolved.” Noir’s face was impassive as always but Poppy still felt some twist in her gut… “I know it’ll be extra work to not fall into old habits. I’m prepared for that.” Dang, Noir caught it, huh? Maybe Poppy really was just that predictable?</p><p class="western">“I don’t… I really want to trust you, but I need proof, you know? Proof that you aren’t gonna just fuck with my memories and do tricks and actually follow through on what you’re promising. How can I know for sure you aren’t lying?” The tears dried up in the interim but they were on the edge of spilling again. “That you and the others…” She sat ramrod straight and turned her head suspiciously. “Have the others lied to me too? I had a hunch but…” She couldn’t cut all of them out all at once, although they all tended to be a little scarce for the past week. “Am I right in thinking if they did, you put them up to it?”</p><p class="western">Noir didn’t even flinch, or look embarrassed at all, not like she was in the Web. “They didn’t hide as much from you as I did, and yes, I pressured them to do it.” Poppy found her fists clenching and had to take a deep breath. It was entirely possible Noir just got all of her emoting out of her in the Web and just didn’t have anything left. She’d always been way more calm and collected, even when Poppy thought she was just a weird cat. Ugh, this thought process was just sidetracking her from the main goal -</p><p class="western">“So then…” Wait a minute… “What exactly have the others been hiding from me? I mean, by now I guess you aren’t just magical cats…” In hindsight it seemed so fucking stupid to accept that they were cats but also magic, and that amount of information was okay but any more detail crossed the line somehow? That had to be their weird magic, too. “Okay, why don’t we just...can you guys just come clean and tell me everything? About what you are? Let’s start with that.” It’d also give her more time to come up with a solution to the trust problem – or maybe help her decide if she needed to wait some more before giving them a second chance.</p><p class="western">The other five black cats all appeared in a row on the bed, gathering around her in distinctly un-catlike ways. God, it seemed so obvious now that she was really looking – or maybe they just stopped hiding it? She was about to open her mouth, admit she knew their powers, technically, just not their actual forms, but they beat her to it. Well, Munmun beat her to it.</p><p class="western">“You wanna see what we really look like, huh?” There was no cute belly flop that usually accompanied her mental tugs. “Because other than that, we were pretty honest with our skills.” Honest enough that Poppy actually tended to favor some of them over others for tasks that needed more than just companionship, though she loved all six of them the same. It hit her, suddenly, that this wasn’t telepathy, either. Words were actually coming out of Munmun’s mouth, in English even. “I’ll go first. Those jokes about me being a baku weren’t exactly jokes…” There was a puff of pink smoke and in the cat’s place sat a tapir, pink and blue and purple, in cotton candy tones. Cute, actually! She was pretty familiar with how baku worked – or at least how Munmun worked – at this point, so no questions for her.</p><p class="western">Next was Felis, who simply grew larger, a little rounder, and raised up on her hind legs. Oh, an actual bakeneko? Neat! Wait – “You aren’t gonna, like, set the house on fire or anything, right?” Felis wiggled her butt, crouching down like a normal cat for a second and chattered.</p><p class="western">“Do I look like a nekomata to you? Look, only one tail! Sure, I can make hitodama, but that doesn’t mean I’m mean enough to commit arson, jeez.” Noir coughed conspicuously and Felis continued. “Okay, sure, I can kind of control corpses but I hardly ever need to do that.” Who needed to play tricks when you had a human who coddled you free of charge? That was the best life! “So I’m not gonna curse you or anything.” She went to groom herself, and Poppy moved on to Regina.</p><p class="western">A tiny ball of black flames with no heat cloaked that cat and out popped a bird the size of the average owl but with reddish orange plumage and definitely not the shape of an owl, more like...well, if you asked Poppy, the Pokemon Moltres, Kanto form, although obviously not exactly one to one. Moltres’s flickering flames weren’t black, for instance, and for a second Poppy worried about the bed – so much for Felis being the one to worry about – but nothing happened. Not even the smell of charring fabric. “Can I just assume you’ve got the standard phoenix rejuvenation powers? And the rebirth thing?”</p><p class="western">Regina nodded as best as a bird could, and hearing human speech come out of a beak was a little disconcerting. “I’d be larger, but there’s no space here for that. Also I’ve got limited fire magic, and can fade through shadows just like the cat.” The cat...the actual cat. Yeah, she supposed Felis did count as a cat. And she had...vague fuzzy memories for a second, of being cloaked in flame herself. She shook her head to clear it, chalking it up to bits and pieces of whatever the hell happened in England. Those kept popping up a lot lately, but she could deal with that bucket of PTSD later. For now, she turned her gaze over to her transparent duo, who were doing their best to resist the impulse to slip through the bed frame and trying to maintain room temperature. Her eyes widened slightly when they melted into their true forms – she expected a cat called Skullz, who was a ghost, it seemed, to be a mini reaper, with all the powers that came with it. She had figured Nightmare was just a yowly cat that died at best, or a chatterbox human ghost in cat form at worst, not…</p><p class="western">“Banshee.” He supplied, tossing his long hair over what she supposed was his face, except a skull. Both of them were skeletal, to be expected, she supposed, but Skullz had a scythe and Nightmare was drowning in tons of torn rags, whereas Skullz at least seemed to have an actual frame under his reaper robes. Also, though -</p><p class="western">“But aren’t you male?” There were definitely two little plums under his tail when he was a cat! He just shrugged.</p><p class="western">“Human mythos labels me female, and I just go with it.” His – oh god, what pronoun to use? Their voice certainly sounded right smack dab in the center of the archaic binary, pure androgyny and if she looked closer, the chest area was a little flat, but she thought that was because it was just bones? “When I joined your little band, things were skewed a little too far in one direction, so I decided to be a male cat to balance things out a little bit. It really makes no difference what you consider me, although I guess I did get used to being called ‘he.’” She blinked. Human mythos?</p><p class="western">“We’re all shadows, you see.” Munmun explained. “Like, from the Web. Shadows don’t really have gender the way humans do. We appear the way the collective unconscious created us, and usually just go with the pronouns that fit whatever language we’re speaking in out of convenience. If you’re used to calling Nightmare a ‘he’, it’s fine. We really don’t care.” Lots of languages didn’t even have pronouns like this – they were really just following linguistic convention.</p><p class="western">“Think of me like your alarm bell.” Nightmare explained. “I’ll let you know if anybody you care about is about to croak.” Wow, how comforting. She shivered and the room got warmer immediately, although it was a mystery as to whether it was just the death creatures containing themselves or the room’s heating.</p><p class="western">“I’m a run of the mill Reaper.” Skullz quipped, gripping his scythe. “You already know how that works. And yes, I’m still in the process of trying to find your friend’s friend.” Oh, good to know Skullz still remembered, because in all this chaos, she’d forgotten her promise to Ren. Oops…</p><p class="western">“I wanna know how you guys got here. Like, if you’re shadows, and shadows are from places like the TV World or the Web or Mementos…” She tried really hard not to get up close to each of them, to stare and inspect and poke and prod, but once the initial amazement wore off, curiosity came bubbling up and she suppressed a squee when they got the hint of her request and shuffled forward so she could touch and study. Ah, this was so cool! Munmun felt like she’d imagine a tapir would, and the way her skin pulsed under Poppy’s touch clued her in to how much she was trying not to let Poppy’s oversensitive ass conk out from her fumes. Felis really did feel like a cat still, but those green eyes sparkled with intelligence that Poppy had never picked up on before and she produced a tiny hitodama just to laugh at how Poppy tentatively poked it, squeaking when it fizzled out when her finger got closer. Regina’s feathers were warm, but not burning, and her hand slipped into the flames floating off of them with no issue, trying to grasp one close enough to look at its color under better lighting, but not exactly willing to actually tear one off her body. The ghosts were as chilly as she expected, a nice contrast to the hand that was still on Regina’s back, and she was right, Skullz’ body had more weight to it, his scythe beautifully shiny and she could just hear the sharpness, whereas her hand went right through Nightmare’s entire form, and Nightmare’s hollow eye sockets seemed a little more deep and unfathomable than Skullz’. Skullz at least had a tiny red eyeball that swiveled back and forth in his skull.</p><p class="western">Satisfied with her exploration, she sat back for an answer. They didn’t forget her question, did they?</p><p class="western">“We became sentient and powerful enough to escape the confines of the collective unconscious.” Noir answered. “It’s not actually new or groundbreaking. Quite a few shadows are capable of it. Some are even created with that ability from the getgo, although they don’t exactly qualify as shadows per se, but they’re similar enough. Like Morgana.” Poppy blinked. Ren’s magic cat pal? Who insisted he wasn’t a cat? “Morgana is the embodiment of all of humanity’s hope, just as shadows are other aspects of the collective unconscious. Morgana was explicitly made for it. How the rest of us gained sentience...that’s a philosophical question, I suppose. It just seemed to happen.”</p><p class="western">Interesting. So then – “How old are you guys?” The cats all looked at each other.</p><p class="western">“That’s hard to answer with an exact number…” Munmun sheepishly replied. “I remember being aware of things around the time humanity began to have a collective unconscious. Maybe we were made sentient already like Morgana? Maybe we were floating along all this time unaware until then? I’m not sure.” Oh, shit. They were super old. She had way more questions about this, really, but she honed in on Noir.</p><p class="western">“So everybody else showed themselves. You can’t expect me to believe that this really is your true form, right? Aside from the ears and eyes sometimes, it’s so...not like a fairy.” Come on, Noir, show her the goods! It’s not like she’d think you’re weird!</p><p class="western">Noir shifted uncomfortably. “I can’t.” She saw Poppy about to open her mouth – “No, literally. I can’t. It’s...I’ll just show you. Get comfortable first.” The others shifted back into cats and disappeared, and Poppy scowled a little but let Noir shift her to the middle of the bed, exactly, so there was a safe landing of pillow and mattress on all sides of her. What was this for… Suddenly a wave of drowsiness much stronger than anything she had ever felt from Munmun in her entire life swallowed her up.</p><p class="western">She blinked, the ceiling coming into view slowly and softly, and it felt like some amount of time had passed. The sky didn’t seem any darker, when she got up sleepily to check, but it wasn’t any lighter either, which was good. The window looked a lot cleaner, though, almost brand new, and as she surveyed everything from her spot on the bed, the floors were shining too, even with the lights dimmed. And the sink looked absolutely spotless...even these sheets smelled freshly laundered somehow. She turned to Noir with a huff. “Did you trick me somehow?”</p><p class="western">“No.” The fairy insisted. “I’m literally incapable of showing anybody my true form. It’s – Fairies have very explicit specific rules to follow, aligning with what our legends are. I’m a housekeeping fae, a domestic spirit, and my rules are that when humans are asleep, I clean their dwellings and do their chores in exchange for strawberries and cream. There’s little loopholes and other ways the clauses tie together. For instance, it just has to be pure strawberries and dairy in any form. So strawberry milk from a vending machine works.” Speaking of, she got up to go to the fridge, to fish out the aforementioned can, Japanese label proudly shown off. “On the other hand, if the entire household is asleep, I have to clean everything, and nobody can wake until I’m done. I can’t clean unless there’s one sleeping occupant in the building, and shifting into my true form triggers the magic that keeps you from seeing me and I am obligated to clean and do the chores. Part of why I chose a cat form is that it makes travel from house to house undetected much easier.” And also, Poppy adored cats.</p><p class="western">Poppy sat for a moment, digesting that explanation, and slowly putting pieces together. “You...you guys all swore that you’d never ever use your powers on Yu and Ai-chan without permission, though, but...you’ve cleaned our house before. I gave you strawberries and cream for it, even. But Ai was…” She saw red again but it cooled. “I...I suppose it’s…”</p><p class="western">“It can’t really be helped.” Noir admitted, quiet. “It doesn’t hurt her. I make sure I always get done before she needs to be up. I have contingency plans in case I get interrupted by a disaster – this place. It’s small and easy to clean so if some tragedy happens, like a fire or something, I can bring you all here and clean this place a lot quicker.” Poppy’s eyes softened slightly. Noir chose to explain further. “Right now you were out for about an hour and a half, but I finished in an hour.” It was easy to clean when the worst that had accumulated in a space this small was dust. “As soon as I finished, I could’ve woken you up, I just chose not to. Because you’ve been stressed.”</p><p class="western">Oh. That made Poppy’s heart flutter in an unexpected way. She pushed that feeling aside to deal with later. “...You need to tell Yu about this. You can’t use your magic on our kid – even though it’s an unintended side effect! I get that!” Noir frowned a little – it was really more the main part of her contract, not a side effect, but whatever made Poppy feel better. “But this is a thing he’s gotta know you’re doing, you know? So we can make an informed choice about whether to let you continue.” Ah, wait… “Is it even possible to stop at this point?”</p><p class="western">“Yes.” Noir sat next to her on the bed. “Just stop giving me strawberries and cream. I’ll still be able to associate with you, just not clean the apartment.” Poppy felt a stabbing sensation in her chest just a little bit. Noir’s help with chores was very useful...and she’d been doing this all along and Ai really did seem fine...she guessed Yu could make the final decision. Okay, there was one last thing to address, to bring back from the pile of thoughts to think about later.</p><p class="western">“I need to be able to trust that you won’t fuck with anybody’s heads, at least without permission. But I’m unsure how to enforce that in a way I can actually believe.” She wasn’t one for unreality spirals, but truthfully she’d been slightly on the edge of this particular psychosis ever since the argument. “Fairies have rules, you said. Can we make a rule?” An image of the prayer beads from Inuyasha popped into her head and she dismissed it. Too ridiculous – the concept, though… “What would I have to actually do to make a contract thing with you? And make it safe? Are you allowed to tell me how to do that?”</p><p class="western">Noir smiled and leaned back, thinking. “Well, the usual format is we create terms and conditions – something that benefits us both and something that backfires if the terms are broken. Since I wronged you, you should reap the benefits for both, whereas the good part for me only happens if I abide by the rules. It can be tweaked a little, however.” The specifics, though…</p><p class="western">“So...obviously the rule is gonna be that you can’t modify my memory – or the memories of p...let’s just say you can’t modify memories of anybody without my explicit permission, a-and I can’t be drunk or anything either.” That sounded fair! The other half was trickier, though… “And if you follow that rule, you get to...uh...hmm.” How could she make this different from a punishment? Did she really need to have both? It might be easier if she combined the two…</p><p class="western">“The way you have this phrased, I am literally incapable of modifying anybody’s memory without your say so. Are you certain this is what you want?” Noir had no moral issues having to, say...hold an assailant or something while Poppy made up her mind about memory wiping. It’d just be a little tedious. Poppy looked over, a little flushed.</p><p class="western">“Do we need an escape clause or something? Is this set in stone forever?” Surely she could renegotiate or something if it turned out bad? Noir reached for her hands.</p><p class="western">“Yes, it is permanent. But I trust you. You wouldn’t pick something harsh.” <em>Even if you should.</em> Poppy went silent again, thinking for a very long time. Finally…</p><p class="western">“So, phrased like this, if you’re incapable of messing with memories without my permission...I don’t know what I need to really worry about. But it won’t work unless I give you a benefit…?” Noir nodded and she sighed. “I guess, then...um...i-in exchange…” What seemed equal to this? She didn’t want Noir banished forever by accident, so just getting to be together didn’t seem like a good thing to add, since, if somehow things did get broken… “Is it okay if I think about it more? We don’t have to do this right now?”</p><p class="western">“We don’t.” Noir soothed. “Take your time.” Poppy felt like she ought to get a lawyer for this, really…</p><p class="western">Well! With that settled! “I wanna go back home. We need to have a talk with Yu.” She stood up, her boots were on her feet again and Noir whisked them away to right outside the apartment unit’s door. It was late enough that Ai would be in bed, but she knew Yu’d still be up. Perfect. She sent him a text to prepare him anyway. She scrolled past a message that she didn’t remember sending herself, about how she was safe and at a friend’s house and might be getting home late. It was dated from today and she figured she did kind of not act like herself when she left...maybe he really did worry. Hopefully this text that Noir had sent helped soothe that, just a little. She opened the typing menu.</p><p class="western">[Hey! I need you to meet someone and we have to kind of have a discussion about something important. I know it’s weird timing, but is now okay?]</p><p class="western">Send. She’d wait for an answer before opening the door.</p>
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